Name:Brandon SquyresAge: 34Hometown: Chico, Calif.Connection to your teammate: Beard lovers and childhood friendsCurrent occupation: ContractorDescribe what you do: I install fire sprinkler systems.3 words to describe you: Funny, boisterous and outgoing.Favorite hobbies: Playing music, swimming and traveling.What is the accomplishment you are most proud of? Touring the entire U.S. and Europe with my bands, Cold Blue Mountain, Amarok, and The Makai.What famous person reminds you of yourself? Jason LeeWhat famous person reminds you of your teammate? Sacha Baron Cohen Ė He doesnít mind wearing skimpy clothes and Iíve seen him naked more than Iíd like to admit.What scares you most about traveling? Maybe Iíve seen too many movies, but the possibility of abductions.What excites you most about traveling? Seeing new places.Biggest challenge you and your teammate will face on The Race together: We both get excited easily and like to talk a lot which may cause some communication issues when under high pressure obstacles.Pet peeve about your teammate: He grows a better moustache than me. It really grinds my gears.What country and place would you most like to visit and why? Antarctica, because itís so extreme and desolate. I canít imagine what it would be like to see in person.What do you hope to accomplish by running The Race (other than winning one million bucks)? I want to show America how awesome Adam and I are and spend time with my friend who I donít see as often as Iíd like.

Name:Adam SwitzerAge: 34Hometown: Chico, Calif.Connection to your teammate: Childhood friendCurrent occupation: Eco-friendly farmerDescribe what you do: I am a U.S.F.S. seasonal wildlife firefighter currently working fulltime on a 22 acre farm in the woods that I own to create an international hostel based on organic permaculture, sustainable living and alternative construction techniques.3 words to describe you: Adventurous, outgoing and hurley-burley (constant state of chaos, flux and clamor).Favorite hobbies: Mountain biking, back-packing and building (bikes, houses, inventions, etc.).What is the accomplishment you are most proud of? Being able to fight fires in the summers, travel the world in the winters and still save enough over the years to buy my 22 acre farm in the woods.What famous person reminds you of yourself? Mad Max with a sprinkle of Robin Williamís stand up.What famous person reminds you of your teammate? Abe Lincoln or Henry Rollins.What scares you most about traveling? Nothing really. Maybe it eventually ending. I often end up staying in sketchy quarters to stay on the cheap but you just have to be more aware, not scared.What excites you most about traveling? Food! I love almost all food and love trying even the most freakish grub. I also really enjoy meeting new people and seeing new cultures. It usually restores my faith in humanity. Lastly, animals! Iím an animal freak. I studied zoology a little in college and usually head for the jungle.Biggest challenge you and your teammate will face on The Race together: It will be hard to listen to each other when we are amped up and screaming.Pet peeve about your teammate: His straight edge and when Iím on a tear he provokes any possible trouble for me to get into. Not really a pet peeve because he is always there to get me out of whatever jam he gets me into!What country and place would you most like to visit and why? Madagascar Ė unique bio diversity that evolved separate than almost any other, or Mongolia to buy a horse, travel the plains and experience nomadic culture.What do you hope to accomplish by running The Race (other than winning one million bucks)? Having a riot and traveling with my great buddy who I donít get to see enough in our current situations. I want to make people laugh, cry, love and hate us. See how we stack up in the endÖ are we really the best?

« Last Edit: January 13, 2014, 08:06:43 AM by georgiapeach »

Logged

"I can't speak for production, but I really like that people see us when we're traveling around the world. If you're a fan of the show, ... you're going to be more excited because you want to see what happens."Phil Keoghan

"I can't speak for production, but I really like that people see us when we're traveling around the world. If you're a fan of the show, ... you're going to be more excited because you want to see what happens."Phil Keoghan

"I can't speak for production, but I really like that people see us when we're traveling around the world. If you're a fan of the show, ... you're going to be more excited because you want to see what happens."Phil Keoghan

They definitely seem to have unique personalities, which should make the Race more refreshing. I'm not sure yet if I'll like them or not, but I'm definitely glad they are not a "cookie-cutter" type of team. I'm also glad that their relationship is based on something other than where they work.

"I can't speak for production, but I really like that people see us when we're traveling around the world. If you're a fan of the show, ... you're going to be more excited because you want to see what happens."Phil Keoghan

Am I the only one who feels nothing from these two? They do nothing but bore me everytime they come on TV

Logged

"But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of timeHoney, I rose up from the dead, I do it all the timeI've got a list of names and yours is in red, underlinedI check it once, then I check it twice (oh)"

Friends Brandon and Adam become the latest Amazing Race team eliminated from the race around the world. They answer your questions about their time on the race here:

Brian S: Do you think if you would've stuck with the Neptune challenge from the beginning, you would still be in it?Brandon: Yeah, we might have...but you never can tell. We had been there for 15-20 min and only had 7 or so coins and we needed 75. The crowd was tapped out and it was bad timing.

Caitlin B: Raised in the Chico area... you guys are amazing. Who are rooting for now??? Hope to see you guys on an all star season Brandon/Adam: We are rooting for Oklahoma!

Elaine H: For the one who lives in the wilderness, where do you live and what is life like?Adam: I live outside of a town called Montgomery Creek. Live is awesome. I'm a big fan of wildlife - I have plenty of space and I grow my own food.

Marisa H: How exhausted were you guys doing both challenges and running around the apartment building looking for that donut? Sad to see you guys go.Brandon: We were really tired and it was really hot in the outfit. We were exhausted but we were more frustrated.

Barb L: If given the chance, would you have U-Turned anyone? If so, who?Adam: If we were in the Afghanimals shoes - we would have done what they did to us, to anyone behind us. We hold no grudges and we would have done the same thing.

Daphne P: Will you ever try to do the Race again? We are sad to see you guys go. Please try again in the future for your fans that rooted for you guys.Brandon/Adam: We feel really bad about letting down our fans. If we got the golden opportunity to try the race again, we'll be there!

Traci F: Will you guys go on Survivor? You would be great!Brandon: I don't like the fact that you are voted off because people don't like you. If we could do it together, that could be fun but we don't like how the game is all about alliances.

Nikki H: Brandon and Adam, since you've been friends for a very long time, how did that friendship bloom (ie, what did the younger versions of yourselves see in the other)? AND will the memories you made on the The Amazing Race be within your top five favorite shared memories?Adam: Brandon and I are great friends and we've always been great friends. It's one of those things we can mumble about when we're all old and sitting on our front porch.Brandon: Right now this is one of our top five favorite shared memories but we still have more life to live!

"I can't speak for production, but I really like that people see us when we're traveling around the world. If you're a fan of the show, ... you're going to be more excited because you want to see what happens."Phil Keoghan

The "Childhood Friends and Beard Lovers" became the fourth team eliminated from the around-the-world competition after they arrived at the Race's fifth Pit Stop at Poland's Sopot Pier, the longest wooden pier in Europe, in last place upon completion of a super-leg.

Halfway through the super-leg, Brandon and Adam had checked in with The Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan in first place and did not experience a rest period of any kind.

In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Monday, Brandon and Adam talked about their The Amazing Race experience. Below is the first half. Check back with us on Tuesday for the concluding portion.

Reality TV World: How long after Allison "Ally" Mello and Ashley Covert do you think you finally arrived at the Pit Stop? How far behind the pack do you think you were?

Adam Switzer: I'll let Brandon answer this because I didn't actually see the show yesterday.

Brandon Squyres: But you were there! (Laughs)

Adam Switzer: I was there! (Laughs)

Brandon Squyres: We don't really know. We felt like we were probably about 25 minutes behind them, because we were at the statue thing for a long time. One of the times, like the first time we were at the statue, we were there longer than the other two [teams] were there combined -- the first time. And so...

Adam Switzer: And then when we got back up, it's the fake beards that throws people off. Nobody likes a plastic beard over a real beard. They know you're faking!

Reality TV World: Did your elimination sting a little bit more given you guys finished the first half of the super-leg in first place? That couldn't have felt good.

Adam Switzer: Thanks for bringing it up!

Reality TV World: Sorry! (Laughs)

Adam Switzer: No, it's fine. I'll just cry myself to sleep again.

Brandon Squyres: I think the part that stung the most is on that boat ride down the coast of Norway, Ashley and Ally and the "Baseball Wives" [Nicole "Nicky" Getz and Kim DeJesus] -- they were really concerned that they were getting U-Turned. I was like, "You don't have any control over it. Don't worry about it. What is anybody going to have against you?"

And we turned down -- a lot of people came to us, like, "Hey, let's have an alliance, let's get the Afghanimals [Leo Temory and Jamal Zadran]." And we said, "Hey, we're not going to burn those guys just because you've got a problem with them, we don't have any issue." And when they did -- the only smart move on their part, which was to, you know, U-Turn.

On a Double U-Turn, if you're U-Turned, you U-Turn the people behind you. So they pulled the smart move to stay in the Race, and that kind of stung. We're like, "Damn!" Had we just burned someone for the sake of an alliance, we might still be in this. But we ran the Race on our own two legs, and I'm pretty proud of the way that we did it and I have no hard feelings against the Afghanimals.

Reality TV World: Speaking of whether you had hard feelings against Leo and Jamal, when I talked to [Rowan Joseph and Shane Partlow] earlier in the season, they said they really disliked the guys because they had lied to their faces and cheated them on money and the list kind of continued. So it sounds like the pair never did anything bad to you two?

Brandon Squyres: I don't think the Afghanimals really did anything wrong to anybody. They're playing the game and they're good at it. A lot of people just didn't like the way that they were playing it because people forget that it's a game, especially early on, you're trying to make friends and you're trying to do this.

They were "game on" from Day 1, and people just didn't like it. They thought it was shady the way they just -- I mean, yeah, some of the things were kind of shady, but it's all within the rules of the game. They didn't break any rules, and you know, they're just not trying to make friends. They're trying to win a game and that's what we're all really there for.

Reality TV World: Because of the super-leg and the fact you knew all the teams were told to keep racing at its halfway point, did you have any hope it'd be a non-elimination leg or did you think the chances were pretty slim of that happening back-to-back?

Adam Switzer: We knew because it was a "keep racing" [leg] and it was already a non-elim that it was an elimination. We were just holding out hoping that someone got lost on the Roadblock or got a sh-tty taxi or fell down a flight of stairs. (Laughs)

Brandon Squyres: We also didn't know that it was going to be a Double U-Turn, and so, we still had pretty high hopes until we were almost to the U-Turn thing and we saw the Afghanimals. They were like, "Sorry we U-Turned you!" But we could see they were doing the second task. So we knew they got U-Turned and were like, "Ahh, it's a double. I see."

Reality TV World: So it sounds like it didn't surprise you guys at all that it was Leo and Jamal who U-Turned you, is that correct?

Adam Switzer: Well they had just finished dancing right before we did.

Brandon Squyres: Well, a little bit before we did. And they had been there forever! We knew that someone in there would U-Turn them, because so many people told us they were going to.

So we knew they'd be U-Turned. We thought about a Double U-Turn, but we didn't know for sure until we saw them again. And then yeah, we kind of expected it, they did the smart move. I would've done it to anyone on that Race!

Reality TV World: You guys apparently got lost on your way to the shipyard. Could you talk about what happened there? You weren't the only team who got lost, so I'm assuming there was something pretty confusing that happened.

Brandon Squyres: There's a thing that said, "Go to the Cdanska shipyard." It was the birth place of the Solidarity movement, and everyone looked it up on the Internet before and it said, "the Cdanska shipyard." Well, the clue was actually on this little circle right BEFORE the shipyard, and a lot of the taxis, they didn't speak English very well, so they all took them to the ACTUAL shipyard.

So when you got there, everybody was just like -- security guards and stuff were not letting you go onto the shipyard. So everybody just starts freaking out. But there was a big, like, plaza right before it, and then we remembered that after and had him drive back and found it. But it was kind of confusing.

Adam Switzer: We knew that it was the Three-Crosses [Monument] memorial. We had that in our research. We just hadn't -- he drove by it and was like, "Oh, we have to enter over here."

That taxi driver was the worst taxi driver ever. That guy didn't know where anything was, because even after we left that and we tried to get to the Golden Gate, he had no clue. And I don't know if it was shown on TV, but he called someone else's taxi...

Reality TV World: If I recall correctly, it was Jason Case and Amy Diaz's taxi who got the call and their cab driver didn't help out your driver.

Brandon Squyres: Had they known it was us -- and they told us right after that and everything -- had they known it was us, they would've told him because they really liked us and we had helped them out earlier. But they didn't know who it was.

And I heard Amy's voice through the phone, and when he hung up, I said, "Call back!" I was like, "If you tell them that it's Brandon and Adam, they'll tell us, I swear!" And he's like, "No, no, you guys said no. I won't call him back." And so we were like, "Ugh, alright."

Reality TV World: Going back to the leg's Detour tasks, you switched at first from "Pose" to "Polka" before the Double U-Turn forced you to do both anyway. Looking back, do you think had you stuck with the posing one for awhile longer to begin with that might've changed your fate in the leg at all?

Adam Switzer: Having done a lot of busking and known a lot of buskers, when a crowd's worked, it's worked. We showed up at a bad moment, the "Baseball Wives" and the Afghanimals collectively were not there for as long as we were there the first time we went, you know.

And we went there, we were there for 20 minutes, we had seven zloty or 10 zloty or whatever, and you do the math! It's like, "Ugh, we're killing ourselves here! We're wasting a bunch of time. Let's go do the thing where it's in our control, because we can move and groove. Let's do that."

Brandon Squyres: That's one of the first tasks that they -- they had gotten there and so it was the same crowd when we got there. So they had just given all their money to the "Baseball Wives," and like Adam said, we sat there and it was just like 20 minutes.

They were only there, I think, five to 10 minutes maybe. We were there 20 minutes and only had seven zloty and we needed 75. It was just like, "Yeah, we possibly could've sat down and waited 20 minutes and then been fine," but could you imagine being on the Race and sitting down for 20 minutes? You want to go do something!

Adam Switzer: That's a call you have to make, you know? If whatever you're doing isn't working, you have to change something. And we thought -- had we found the dancing even a little sooner or even if we showed up when the Afghanimals showed up, we would've smashed them. We did it in a quarter of the time they did it...

It took us four tries. The Ice Queens [Ally and Ashley] did it in three, and we're not considered nimble, I guess. People wouldn't expect us to be such good dancers unless of course the people have danced with us! Wow, boy, never the polka though!

"I can't speak for production, but I really like that people see us when we're traveling around the world. If you're a fan of the show, ... you're going to be more excited because you want to see what happens."Phil Keoghan

"I can't speak for production, but I really like that people see us when we're traveling around the world. If you're a fan of the show, ... you're going to be more excited because you want to see what happens."Phil Keoghan

The "Childhood Friends and Beard Lovers" became the fourth team eliminated from the around-the-world competition after they arrived at the Race's fifth Pit Stop at Poland's Sopot Pier, the longest wooden pier in Europe, in last place upon completion of a super-leg.

Halfway through the super-leg, Brandon and Adam had checked in with The Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan in first place and did not experience a rest period of any kind.

In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Monday, Brandon and Adam talked about their The Amazing Race experience. Below is the concluding portion. Click here to read the first half.

Adam Switzer: I like Poland and they make awesome food, but their pastries suck! Reality TV World: Oh, you didn't like them? It seemed like everyone else thought they were delicious. (Laughs)

Adam Switzer: Oh yeah! (Laughs) Maybe it's because we were there so late, they were all dried out. But man, shoving an old, stale, dried-out jelly donut in your mouth when you're running and totally dehydrated and you're wearing that stupid onesie with that stupid hat on, oh man!

Reality TV World: You were given 12 different addresses to go to within that building complex. How many different apartments did you actually have to go to before finding the correct pastry?

Adam Switzer: I think I got the right apartment on try No. 8 or something.

Brandon Squyres: Really?

Adam Switzer: Yeah, I don't know. It was the fourth block I had been to, or the third block, but I had been through several apartments. The thing was, you had to -- reading the rules, you had to buzz yourself in to each one, which meant you had to go all the way back down to the bottom even if you were in the same block.

You couldn't just go knock on the door. So there was a lot of running! I think we about killed some of the crew. They were pretty bummed that we run so much.

Reality TV World: Rowan Joseph had called Marie "Reebs" Mazzocchi "the devil" during a previous leg, and you guys were shown as not being big fans of hers either. For instance, when she asked you for help when she and Timothy Sweeney couldn't figure out where to hang their fish to dry, you guys refused and ran off yelling stuff. What were your thoughts on Marie?

Adam Switzer: I think Marie is one of the most messed up people that I know, but I like her, and I told her that I didn't have any ill will towards her. I mean, Brandon and I are really good about talking smack to anybody, and I don't know, I liked her! And I know she REALLY likes Brandon. (Laughs)

Reality TV World: Am I sensing a little sarcasm there maybe?

Adam Switzer: No.

Brandon Squyres: Oh no!

Reality TV World: Oh, okay, so she really did! If you guys had an Express Pass, there's probably a good chance you would've survived this leg since you could've skipped one of the Detour tasks. So looking back on the moment you guys refused to help Tim and Marie with the fish when they were basically waving the Express Pass in your face, do you regret that at all?

Brandon Squyres: No, I mean, you could sit and regret that, but it felt so right to just leave her right then. Because in the fish head task, one of our clues was stuck inside my outfit and I couldn't get it out and I was trying to ask her how many heads there were that had to be -- how many bundles I had to make, and she wouldn't answer me.

I was kind of pissed that she wouldn't just like -- that she was ignoring me then. So at that time, it felt good to just like leave. They showed that we just left too when we did the thing, and it was just [the type of] thing where we were like, "We're in a race. I don't have time to sit and make sure yours is okay. Yeah, maybe you'll give me the Express Pass, but you told every single person you'd give them something." So I guess I could've sat there and haggled with it until I got it, but I don't know.

Adam Switzer: She flaunted that Express Pass to all the other teams, and none of them got it. And we actually did stop to help her. We said, "You need this many strings, this many heads, we tied them, we separated them all out on a pole like this -- that's what we did. Peace, we're out."

Brandon Squyres: But she kept yelling at us.

Reality TV World: So did it surprise you then that Tim and Marie actually followed through with giving their Express Pass to Nicole Jasper and Travis Jasper -- who had helped them? Because it sounds like you're saying they promised the pass to a lot of people.

Brandon Squyres: Well they only gave it to Travis and Nicole because Travis and Nicole, like, called them out and sat and made them give it to them. They didn't really have a choice.

I didn't really understand that. I guess [Tim and Marie] could've just followed them, like what? Are Travis and Nicole just going to sit in the car and not go to the place? (Laughs) If I was Marie, I'd just be like, "Well why don't you drive there and I'll just follow you."

Adam Switzer: And at that point, they had to give it away. It was coming up. They had to give it away by the end of that leg anyways.

Brandon Squyres: [Tim and Marie] didn't have a clue. If I had sat there and said, "Hey Marie, give it to us and then I'll tell you," like at first, I didn't really know why they didn't have [it correct]. I didn't look at their pole or anything. But I wasn't going to sit there and haggle with her over it.

Adam Switzer: Yeah, we weren't going to beg her for anything.

Reality TV World: Going back to that really long 30-something hour boat ride, what the heck did you guys do on the boat that entire time?

Adam Switzer: Slept on the boat!

Brandon Squyres: I slept. I was exhausted.

Adam Switzer: We had gotten about -- between the Portugal leg, and so for however long that was, we got about four-six hours of sleep, Brandon and I. And then the Norway leg was really long. It was, you know, I think 30 some-odd hours, and then, you just keep racing! So we had been up forever and ever and ever.

We went and secured plane tickets and we had to do all that before we could rest. So by the time we got to that 36-hour boat ride, we were exhausted, and people were getting sick. So it was awesome. But I sat out on the deck the whole time and stared at Norway.

Reality TV World: Nicole "Nicky" Getz and Kim DeJesus as well as Allison "Ally" Mello and Ashley Covert have been doing fairly well in the Race thus far. Since they are both all-female teams, do you think some of the other Racers might've underestimated them a little bit or no?

Adam Switzer: No comment.

Brandon Squyres: Yeah.

Adam Switzer: I'm not touching that one with a yard stick.

Brandon Squyres: Yeah, I don't know. There's a lot of luck in this race. That's all I'll say.

Reality TV World: How were you cast on The Amazing Race? How did you end up on the show?

Brandon Squyres: We made a video on the last day of submission, sent it in, and they called us the next day.

Reality TV World: Was it your first time applying?

Brandon Squyres: Yeah, it was.

Adam Switzer: You know, it got sent to the right guy. It got sent to a stunt guy... and I think he realized talent plus we happened to have some glorious beards at the time.

"I can't speak for production, but I really like that people see us when we're traveling around the world. If you're a fan of the show, ... you're going to be more excited because you want to see what happens."Phil Keoghan